Leaf and the Toadstool World
by Copper Hikari
Summary: Pokemon Trainer Leaf somehow defeated Brock and got her first gym badge, but she wiped out her savings in the process. Still, Leaf isn't going back home to Pallet Town, and if that means she has to earn money through a side-quest on Ranger Net, so be it. One ghost, two friends, three boys, and one evil scheme later, Leaf isn't quite sure the quest was worth the pay.
1. This has to be the wrong place

Leaf and the Toadstool World

…

 **1\. "This has to be the wrong place."**

Leaf and Bulbasaur stood at the base of the Great Santa Monica Bridge, bracing themselves against the strong afternoon winds. She held on tight to her Pokedex, checked the directions on the screen, and looked back at the strange structure once, twice. "This has to be the wrong place."

Before them was a round, squat, barely-three-story green building with a mushroom top.

"Or, you know, it'd be nice if this were the wrong place," Leaf said.

The roof had a literal, _growing out of the top_ mushroom.

As Leaf watched it, the spotted red growth pulsated exactly once.

Bulbasaur shivered beside her.

"Don't be rude," Leaf said, half to her companion and half to herself. "People don't go to our houses and complain about them."

" _Bulba_."

"Fine. People don't come to my tent and complain about _that_. Point taken. And I'll get that hole in the wall patched before we leave town, don't worry."

Leaf and Bulbasaur stood there for another moment, staring. There was no sidewalk in this city, despite the handful of cars and busses. An older man and his still-older-than-Leaf daughter hustled around them.

"Excuse you," Leaf grumbled. She thought she saw the daughter stop. The father pulled them along, and he muttered clearly: "Pokemon Trainers owning the roads." Leaf resisted the urge to reply. Professor Oak's words echoed: _Pokemon will make you feel powerful. If that happens, it's probably because you're_ not.

There had been more to that lecture. Something something power and responsibility and Trainer's destinies something something. Leaf hadn't paid much attention.

She wished she had paid attention before taking this stupid quest.

The strange fungus-looking building seemed to sigh and get wider, right before her eyes.

"Well," Leaf said. "Let's get this over with."

Bulbasaur shook its head and dug in its paws. " _Saur."_

"Fine. Ladies first, I guess."

Leaf took a step onto the bridge, which connected the main road to the home. The bridge was an outrageous crimson and gold, but her foot creaked on the first step. Bulbasaur's feet plodded behind her.

Leaf hopped the last plank and stuck her arms out at her side.

Bulbasaur finished crossing and waited at her feet. The few people she had met on the road said they had never seen such an obedient first Pokemon.

Leaf always corrected them: it wasn't that he was obedient, it was that he didn't like to rock the boat. He knew what he had to do to get out of a situation in one piece, and if it meant listening to Leaf, then that was the order of the day.

The creased brow and matching grimace on Leaf's partner told her he was starting to question that outlook.

"Don't worry, Bulbasaur." Leaf folded the note and put it back in her satchel. "You heard Belinda. In and out. No surprises, just like Pewter City."

Bulbasaur scrunched its face, and Leaf corrected herself. "Okay, so hopefully not _exactly_ like Pewter City—"

Another gust of wind rocketed across them. Leaf felt her white hat almost come off of her head and she slammed it back down over her head of brunette hair. Another hand gripped the front of her red skirt. ( _Wear a skirt_ , her mother had said. _Trainers look so cute in them_.)

Bulbasaur was still looking like someone spit in his food, but this one wasn't at Leaf. He glowered past her, by the house. Leaf whipped around.

"Hi," she said to the small boy standing in the structure's open doorway. The doors' optimistic red shade matched the mushroom growing on the roof. They also stretched a good ten feet up. Leaf had to stare for a moment to make sure they weren't alive, too. Finally Leaf told the boy, "I'm the Trainer who accepted your quest. Leaf, from Pallet Town?"

The boy was in desperate need of a haircut. His black shirt and matching shorts were decorated with a spread of colorful stains, and Leaf didn't want to place them.

"Mom said you're supposed to have a Badge, or I can't let you in."

Polite kid.

Leaf wanted to walk over, put her hands on her knees, and show him her Pokedex and badges and everything, but there was a strange off-puttingness to the child's almost feline stare. Belinda would have called it 'stabby'.

"I have a badge," Leaf said. She lifted the top of her satchel. The Pewter City badge was pinned there, safe and sound. "Just got it last week."

The boy was unimpressed. He went back inside the structure and the door closed shut.

Oak's words echoed. _If something looks like it's a terrible idea, there's a reason for it. Maybe it's actually terrible._

The door pulled open again, with the same silence as before. Unlike before, it pulled all the way open, and then the door beside it pulled inward as well. Leaf and Bulbasaur watched as the grand doors revealed the building's long hallway: a velvet carpet leading to yet another set of doors, with elaborate paintings of people Leaf didn't recognize on each wall.

The boy jumped out from behind the doors. "Come on, then," he said.

Bulbasaur didn't go. Leaf was the one in charge.

"Let's roll," Leaf said.

#

The night before.

It wasn't so much that Leaf was desperate. Desperate would have been begging Brock to let her win, and she and Bulbasaur took down that Onix fair and square. It was that Leaf just wasn't ever, ever going home, _ever_ again. "And in my book, that means no asking Mom for money, either," she added.

Leaf and Bulbasaur were in the Pewter City West Hostel.. It was the only one with a vacancy, because apparently the fancy Viridian City tourists booked up all the rooms in Pewter Grand Lodgings and Granite Stays, in the fancy parts of the city. But straight-up holes in the plaster walls and continental breakfast consisting of toaster waffles that must have survived the Stone Age aside, West Hostel had an upside. There was an Open Pokeball policy, so Bulbasaur could stay out.

They had also stuck Leaf and Bulbasaur in a four-person room with just one other traveler. Her name was Belinda.

Belinda sat across from Leaf now, down in the hostel common area. "I get what you're saying," Belinda said. "I'm hella sympathetic. I just think it's a little…premature?"

"Premature?"

"You've been gone for what…a month? You can call your folks and ask for help. Nobody's judging you for it. I like to think we live in a post-judgment society." As she said this, Belinda looked both ways around the room, then fished out a tiny flask from the inside of her boot. She poured brown liquid from it into her own glass of Coke. "You want some?" Belinda asked.

Leaf glanced behind Belinda, at the snack counter. A cute boy worked there, doling out boxes of candy and bags of popcorn and glasses of Coke. Behind him, the sign: _No alcohol on premises_.

"I think I'm good," Leaf said. "I can't drink, anyway."

"Right, right." Belinda's smile was the textbook definition of coy. "What are you, like, nine?"

"I'm twelve," Leaf answered.

" _Right,_ right. Big difference." Belinda drank slowly.

"How old are _you_ , anyway?" Leaf asked.

Belinda was a combination of ages, from the top down.

Four braids of blond hair that stuck two upward and two long ones, each tied off with white ribbons.

A chest and hips that made Leaf herself blush when Belinda changed at night.

Traveler's boots that belonged on grown men.

Then you got to Belinda's blue eyes, always staring back at you, challenging.

"I'm enough to drink and old enough to die," Belinda said. "Also old enough to pay for tonight's bunk with my day's battle winnings. What do you have left on you after battles nineteen and twenty, anyway Leaf-o?" Belinda pursed her full lips. "I mean, sure, Pewter is all rock-type and there's type advantage with Bulbasaur and other Trainer-ly bullshit, but you're not supposed to throw yourself at it until you win."

"I got money after I beat Brock."

"Yeah, but I beat Brock once. What'd he give you? P3000? That's like, a good breakfast and a Super Potion. It's not all the savings you lost."

Yes, Leaf had money trouble, but she didn't _admit it_. She knew better than to be a twelve-year-old girl on the road, admitting to being in a vulnerable place. Pokemon Trainer or not.

"Here. I've got your back." Belinda pulled her own Pokedex from the inside of her denim jacket. The Pokedex flipped open sideways whereas the ones from Kanto opened like a book. Leaf didn't ask. "You ever hear of Ranger Net, Leaf-o?"

Leaf shook her head.

"Right, right. Only on the road for a month. What do you have, one Pokemon?"

"Two," Leaf said. "The other one is kind of…lazy, though."

"Lame," Belinda said, flicking through controls. She finished whatever she was doing, then placed the Pokedex on the table, spun it Leaf's way, and nudged it. "You know about the Pokemon Rangers, right? They're a bunch of do-gooders around the world? They do humanitarian missions. Stopped something from going down in Fiore about a year ago? Anywho.

"They're too big to do door-to-door jobs, but they want to, because _hello, they're goody-goods._ " Belinda took another swig from her drink. "So, they figure, why not put jobs out there for Pokemon Trainers to take care of? It's totally paid, so all you've gotta do is register and take on a job. They're super-easy, too."

Leaf scrolled down the screen. "'Capture Abra, Normal Pokeball Only'. That's impossible."

"They're not _all_ easy. Look…see, I did one like _that_."

Leaf read it aloud. "'Companion Wanted for Silph Corporation Function'."

"Yep. Real fancy thing. They pay for a nice dress, you get to keep it, all these geezers leer at you for a few hours…But you're kinda young for that."

Leaf deadpanned. "You think?"

"Here, this one's nearby!" Belinda tapped the listing. "'Missing Relative. Experienced Trainer wanted for Search Mission.' It's in Santa Monica, that's like, a few hours out from here. And the pay's not bad. You need at least one badge already, but you've got that. Here, give me your Pokedex. I'll sign you up."

Leaf started to fish her Pokedex from her bag, but then: "Can I read the whole thing first? I mean, I want to know if they want something I can't actually do…"

"What do you think they'll want, a ritual sacrifice? And besides, beggars can't be choosers, Leaf-o."

"Stop calling me that."

"I'm paying for your food tonight, so I get to call you whatever the hell I want." A smile and a head tilt softened the words. Belinda was unlike anyone in Pallet Town; genuinely helpful, but a bit of a mess, too…Most people walked a line between 'nice' and 'not nice'.

Actually, Gary Oak was like that. But that guy was a jerk and a half, and Belinda was giving her food and a job when Gary had just given her a beating outside Viridian City.

 _Not that she would ever admit to that._

Leaf handed Belinda her Pokedex.

Seconds later, Leaf had a mission.

"It's more of a side-quest, really," Belinda said. "Life's full of 'em. So, burgers or noodles tonight?"

#

Inside the mushroom-looking house, again.

The velvet carpet was thick under Leaf's converse shoes, and she walked slowly. It felt like walking on literal money, and the thought of what it would cost to _clean_ the thing was a horror to itself.

"Be careful not to break anything, Bulbasaur," she said.

" _Saur,_ " Bulbasaur grumbled.

"I'm not saying you would. Just, you know…saying."

The door at the end of the hallway opened with a long _creeeeak_. Leaf pulled herself to attention: feet together, hands holding each other behind her back, spine straight and chubby cheeks dimpled in a smile. Jerk Gary Oak had called it her 'babyface'.

An older woman emerged and greeted Leaf with her own grin, spreading from ear to ear and activating wrinkles on her face in places Leaf didn't know you could _get_ wrinkles. (But Leaf wouldn't dare say that.) "Leaf of Pallet Town," the woman said, with her voice almost as croak-y as the door. "So good to finally meet you. I hope you found everything okay."

It was a giant toadstool-looking building. What was there to miss?

"We got around okay," Leaf said. She gestured to her side. "This is Bulbasaur. He walks around with me…that's not a problem, is it?" Leaf added at the end, suddenly self-conscious.

The woman laughed to herself. She was shorter than Leaf, and the hump on her back was almost painful to look at. But then the woman looked Leaf in the eye, and there was then the matronly warmth of every grandmother, to every granddaughter, washing through Leaf at once.

"That will be fine," the woman finally said. "Please, come inside. There is much to discuss, but I'm afraid we won't be able to begin until tomorrow night."

"That's fine, ma'am."

"Please, call me Mindy," the woman said. "Only my grandkids call me ma'am, and only when they're in trouble." Another smile, and the door opened wider.

Leaf and Bulbasaur came through, and Leaf felt her uncertainty come off of her shoulders. This would be good.

If she could beat Brock and that stupid Onix which knew stupid Bide, then _yes_ , she could take whatever job Belinda had signed her up for.

This _needed_ to be good.

#

"There are two requirements to be able to do this job effectively, now," Mindy said.

The inside of the toadstool was an enormous house, but Leaf had only been shown yet _another_ long hallway. Mindy led her to the kitchens, where she prepared two bowls of noodles, added enough meat and vegetables to feed Leaf for days, and sat down across from her at the thick oak table.

"The first one does require a gym badge," Mindy cautioned. "From any region."

"Oh, yeah," Leaf said. She pulled her bag up from the ground and showed the Pewter City badge to Mindy. "I've got it right here."

Mindy inspected the Pewter City Gym Badge for a moment. "Perfect. The Pokemon I'll be having you work with is going to be somewhere around level fifteen, so if he were to not obey your commands, that _would_ be troublesome."

Leaf was about to mention that she didn't need to work with another Pokemon, because she had another one on top of Bulbasaur anyway, but Mindy slurped a few noodles and pressed on. "Now, the other one is more important. You will be going to the top floor of the building to complete the job. The top floor only opens at ten at night, and remains open until three in the morning, when it closes to change its layout. Anything you find up there is yours to keep. Time wasted might not have actually been wasted."

Mindy placed her bowl back down on the table with a loud clatter. She looked at Leaf with the stare from before.

Was Leaf supposed to be reacting to something?

Mindy asked, "Do you know what the job in my home _is_ , Leaf?"

"No, ma-, er, Mindy."

"My son has gone missing," she said. "I bet you saw him on your way in. He's only a little bit younger than yourself, even though to you, I'm sure he seemed like a child."

Leaf waited for the _but you're only a child yourself_. It didn't come, and Leaf was thankful.

"He used to keep himself on the top floor. I wanted him to move on from this world, surely I did, Leaf, but my son was insistent. Without him, he swore, the toadstool above us would whither and die. So, he's been up there for almost thirty years now."

"So when he came downstairs," Leaf said, careful to sound casual even though they were talking about a straight-up ghost child. "The…the toadstool started getting hungry?"

"It's _dying_ , dear. That's the wind all around outside. The toadstool's dying breaths."

…The mushroom-building-roof-thing is dying. Because its ghost caretaker is being a jerk.

…Why the _hell_ did Leaf let Belinda talk her into this?

"Now, I'm certain you're tired from the day so far," Mindy said.

It was barely five-thirty. Leaf did not mention this.

Mindy continued, "If you wish to spend this first night simply getting settled, I won't hold it against you. Pretty young girls like us do need our beauty sleep." A wink. Leaf blushed.

Leaf remembered the hole in the side of her tent. "Getting settled. I…I don't have anyplace to—"

"There are so many rooms available here," Mindy said. "I was planning to offer you the one down the hall, first door on the left. Unless you're uncomfortable with the idea. I imagine I'm asking a lot."

Mindy smiled with her eyes. This woman did know she was a walking ghost story, after all.

"No, it's not…I mean," Leaf stammered, "That's very…generous of you, Mindy."

" _Bulba_ ," Bulbasaur said skeptically. Leaf would later remind Bulbasaur not to look guest housing in the ghostly mouth.

"How lovely," Mindy said. She clapped her hands together. She nodded exactly once, and then she collected the bowls and placed them in the sink. "I'll wash these after I show you to your room," Mindy said. "Feel free to leave the house at any time. Believe me, Santa Monica is lovely at sunset."

"But shouldn't I start planning out my tactics? Maybe see a map of the building, or—"

"Take your time," Mindy said. "When you get to be my age, Leaf, the one thing you'll be telling girls like you is to take your damn time."

#

The room was _marvelous_. King-sized bed, heavy drapes, her own bathroom fit for one of the five-star hotels in Saffron City, and Bulbasaur was allowed to climb on anything he wanted, too. Free access to any food in the fridge only sweetened the deal, and that was before Leaf asked about the pay. As in, did any time she took or any food she ate count against her paycheck at the end.

Mindy seemed offended that Leaf had even considered that.

And when Leaf and Bulbasaur went out to the river to watch the sunset, where the orange sun collapsed against Mt. Moon and illuminated the skyscrapers in Cerulean, not even a month away in Leaf's adventure…

Some days.

Leaf picked up her Pokedex and dialed for Belinda. "Hullo?" Belinda answered.

"I can't do this," Leaf said quickly. She was on the bridge over the water, watching it ebb and flow and consciously trying not to drop anything in it. "This job is insane. I'm dropping it. I am gone. Out, gone, later days, sayonara, _done_."

Belinda yawned. She said something to someone in the background, who sounded _suspiciously_ like the boy who worked the snack stand at the hostel. "Did that guy with you ask for his…shirt?" Leaf asked.

"I don't poke around in your life," Belinda shot back, even though it was total BS. "Anyway, don't you dare come back to Pewter without beating that mission! You'll look like a flake-out to Ranger Net!"

"…I'm supposed to care what Ranger Net thinks of me?"

"Fine, then. Harry's going to think you're a flake-out."

Leaf went silent. Could Belinda hear a fast heartbeat through the phone?

"Hey, gotta go. Bartender boy can't find his shirt. Guess I have to help look for it." And: "Air quotes around 'look', by the way."

" _Right_ ," Leaf groaned. She hung up the phone.

So much for that.

The sun was about set, now, having turned blood red when it crossed the halfway mark below the horizon. Leaf leaned off of the bridge and put her Pokedex away, then looked back to Bulbasaur at her feet. " _Buuuulba_ ," he said, and Leaf answered, "But we just ate, man," so Bulbasaur replied with a resigned " _Saur."_

"Looks like we'll be in town for a while anyway," Leaf said. "What do people stuck in a weird town for a week or more"—she shuddered at the thought'—"What do they do?"

She counted off on her fingers.

They get library cards.

They buy temporary metro passes.

They loiter in parks and wait for other Trainers to fight them. (This was the _worst_.)

"Or," Leaf said aloud, "I guess I could call home…"

She stood there on the bridge, hand over where her Pokedex rested in her bag.

Behind her. A tap on the shoulder, _hard_.

Hard enough to push her back into the bridge, and hard enough to make her grip the railing to not fall over. Leaf yelped, and Bulbasaur growled in protest.

When she pushed herself away, the person behind her was long gone, but Bulbasaur was running after the assailant on all four of his chubby legs.

"Bulbasaur! Come back!" Leaf shouted as she chased after it. Bulbasaur led them back to the main downtown area, where the sidewalks disappeared, and people and vehicles alike traveled on the cobblestone roads. Paper lanterns had been strung between rooftops and they glowed to light the way. Leaf found Bulbasaur another block down, and she took off at a clip, cutting past families and almost trampling more than one older person. Leaf shouted "I'm sorry!" and "Excuse me!" in her wake, and at the next intersection, Bulbasaur finally stopped.

Leaf doubled over and rested her hands on her knees. She fought to catch her breath. "Too many hot dogs," Leaf grumbled. "Too many hot dogs…"

" _Bulba!_ "

"Yeah, good job chasing after him," Leaf said. She stood upright again. Except for the people she'd just run over, nobody in the downtown intersection was paying any attention to them. "I guess we lost him," Leaf said, adjusting her hat. "The bum. Who goes around pushing people, anyway—"

Beside her, this time: "Don't trust a word she says."

Leaf jumped out of her skin, and Bulbasaur did the same, jumping all four paws off the ground.

Between them: the boy from the toadstool house.

Leaf got a better look at him, now. His hair was long, but it was also uneven, as though he'd tried to cut it himself for a long time. His clothes weren't just old; they had holes all over, and where they weren't small moth holes, but rather wide-open, torn-from use, gaping gaps in the fabric.

The boy pushed his hair out of his face. His eyes were black like the night above them.

The boy's voice was sandpaper. "I'm only warning you once. You should leave this city."

"I…Wait." There were too many questions in Leaf's head, and _this is a ghost person!_ underscored all of them. "Don't trust Mindy? She's your mother. She wants me to help you—"

"You should leave."

And then he was gone, in the instant it took Leaf to blink her eyes.

"Hullo?" She asked the empty space. She reached out and felt the space where he used to be. "Mister Ghost Boy?"

Bulbasaur watched the same space, his big green eyes scanning up and down. Eventually he shook his head and gave a long, drawn-out " _Bulbasauuuuuuuuuuuur…"_

"You said it, pal," Leaf said.

Bulbasaur took a stance and stared daggers in the space behind Leaf, but she was ready this time. She turned on her heels and had her fists ready. "Look, ghost dude, stop bugging me or I'll—"

"Ghost guy?" Gary Oak said, standing in front of her with his stupid jerk Gary Oak grin and running a hand through his stupid auburn cowlick. "Man, you really _have_ lost it."

* * *

It's always nice to come back to FFN.

Review if you like, hit the 'story alert' button if you're interested in seeing where this takes Leaf, and I hope you do both! It'll be a ride. Relatively short and sweet, but a ride nonetheless. =)


	2. There's a story behind that

Leaf and the Toadstool World

…

 **2\. "There's a story behind that."**

Leaf's whole body tensed. She felt the fight-or-flight reaction build up in her arms, shoot down her legs, and extend back into her fingertips. The immediate call: _throw a Pokeball. Take him out._

But then she remembered. _You did this dance once._

 _It didn't end well for you._

Gary Oak remembered it, too. Hands in his pockets, that backwards-leaning posture where his crotch was all the way out and he was, like, mating with the _air_ or something, and the way his hair blew carelessly…

Ugh.

Gary Oak.

"How long has it been?" He asked.

 _Not long enough._

"I actually talked to gramps a second ago," Gary said. "He said your mom was all worried and junk." But: "Well, worried for _her._ You know."

A smile crossed his smug face.

Bulbasaur was up on his legs, waiting for a reason, but Leaf wouldn't do it. A fight in a crowded street was just what Gary Oak wanted.

"I'm in the middle of something," Leaf said. "Can I help you?"

Gary held up a finger. "It's _may_ I help you, for starters. And sort of, yeah. I'm lost."

"Good luck with that."

"Come on, stop being a meanie. I am legitimately in need of friendly assistance. Look, I'll show you." Gary reached into the back pocket of his cargo pants. He wore cargo pants. _Universe_ , please _smite him_.

He held the same Pokedex model she had. But of course, his had to have a chrome finish.

"I took a quest around here," Gary said, and Leaf contemplated running out in front of a moving vehicle if it meant cooperating on the toadstool thing with him, but then he added, "it's at the Pokemart here. Or like, whatever the backwater bumpkin version of a Pokemart is?" He said it with a smirk.

"Aren't we backwater bumpkins?" Leaf asked. "Pallet Town and all that?"

"Leaf, Pallet Town had street lights."

She thought the paper lamps above them were lovely, though.

"Anyway. Do me a solid and point me in the right direction, yeah, Leaf?"

"Couldn't help you," Leaf said.

"Don't be like that, Leaf."

"No, for real. I've been here for _maybe_ a few hours. I don't know the way around—"

"Perfect! Let's explore together. It'll be like old times."

The _NO_ ran up from the pit in her stomach, up through her throat, and slammed against her closed lips.

"Come on, let's go this way," Gary said. "If anybody asks, we're trying to find you a bathroom."

"Why would I need a bathroom?"

"I dunno. You're a girl. Girls need to use the bathroom."

She wanted to clock him upside the smug face.

Leaf could write a book on how many things she _wanted_ to do. There would be a whole sub-plot titled 'Maiming of Gary Oak'.

Still, she followed him, careful not to meet his gaze. They went deeper into downtown now, and without the sidewalk to guide them, pedestrians walked every which way. Leaf stopped for a moment and took Bulbasaur in her arms, only to find that he had grown a bit since Pewter gym. She put him back down, but gave him the _I've got my eye on you_ stare. Bulbasaur nodded.

At each crosswalk, Gary looked down at his Pokedex screen and swiped the images. Leaf couldn't help but look.

"Are those…girls?"

Gary swiped exactly two more girls' pictures, then flipped the cover shut. "We're right up here," he said, gesturing up ahead.

"Why are you looking at girls on the internet?"

"Remember what I said," Gary said, quickly. "The story is that we're a couple. And keep your trap shut, if you can."

Leaf's blood pressure rocketed.

 _Deep breaths._

The storefront had seen better days, but Leaf wondered how long ago they were. The green paint on the sign had chipped; the stucco on the storefront was faded and stained as it neared the cobblestones on the ground. The front window was covered with a black trash bag. The metal front door hung ajar.

Gary touched the door. Then he pulled it open and waved a hand at Leaf. "After you, sweetheart."

The muscles in Leaf's face scrunched on her own. Promise.

The must inside clogged Leaf's nose and she fought the urge to sneeze. It was a store, all right, or had been at one point. The tile floor had been ripped up in some areas and scraped into oblivion in others, but the shelves and the front counter remained. Behind the glass doors on the far side of the room were a handful of cases of beer. Leaf doubted they were for sale.

A man emerged from the door behind the counter. He was older, enough to be hers and Gary's father. Bald up top, but sporting a long, grizzly beard on his chin. "Babysittin' hours are over," he grumbled.

"I've got a delivery to make," Gary said. "I'm supposed to meet with an...Oslo Hawkins?"

The man's eyebrow rose.

"Hey, _I_ wasn't about to take the job. My girlfriend here said we needed some cash. Blame her."

Thought one: Gary was here on a Ranger Net mission. It checked out.

Thought two: Gary hadn't seen Leaf since Viridian City, and already he was using her. (This also checked out.)

The bald man did that thing from the crime movies, where his head tilted back and he stared at Leaf and Gary down the length of his nose, waiting for either of them to crack.

"Can we hurry this up?" Gary asked. "My girlfriend's gotta use the bathroom."

"I-it's urgent," Leaf said.

"You don't look like you're about to piss your pants," the man said to Leaf. She considered doing a small I-gotta-go-dance, but thought better of it, and the man waved it away anyhow. "Come through the back here. Delivery's waiting for you, kid." Then, to Leaf: "Bathrooms back outside and around the alley. Code's 12345 on the lock."

Was that Leaf's cue to exit? Was she supposed to wait for Gary?

What exactly _was_ girlfriend protocol? (Ten bucks said that Belinda knew that backwards and forwards.)

Gary put a hand on Leaf's lower back, and she was stunned at the sudden gentleness of his touch.

But then she remembered: _Gary Oak_. _Ugh_.

"I'll be right back, sweets," Gary said. He leaned in like he was going to kiss her cheek, but be backed off, because they both knew he wasn't _that_ stupid. His hand dropped slowly, grazing but not quite groping Leaf's behind, and that convinced the bald man watching them of their couple-ness. He visibly relaxed his hulking shoulders, and Gary passed through the doors without a problem.

Leaf hustled back out the front entrance. Bulbasaur had waited outside patiently. It greeted her with bright eyes and flinched at Leaf's scowl.

She started to sit on the ground next to her Pokemon. But then, of course, now she actually had to use the bathroom.

"Come on," Leaf groaned. She started around the alley toward the back of the building. Bulbasaur waited at the alley mouth and shook its head. Leaf waited. "Don't be such a weenie," she called back. Something in her tone caught, and Bulbasaur followed, reluctant.

The bathroom door was marked by one of those blue male and female signs, but it had faded and tilted in recent years. The metal handle and keypad lock almost radiated with grime.

"Travel the world," Leaf said to nobody. "See the sights. Use the bathrooms. It's an adventure…"

She pulled up the front of her red skirt and pressed the keypad code with her fingers on the skirt fabric. The door opened on its own. Leaf stepped inside.

She gave the bathroom this: it was _remarkably_ clean. The white tile and porcelain sink didn't _look_ like they were carrying the supervirus.

Leaf was washing her hands and her face when she heard the voices, coming above her head. Two of them, she didn't recognize. But then there was the Professor's grandson himself, Gary Oak: "Hey, that's not my problem. You don't like it, take it up with the Under Net." A Gary Oak smirk, and: "Hell, take it up with the cops. I'm sure they'd _love_ to hear about this operation."

Leaf looked further up on the wall. There was a small window, opened at a slant to let the bathroom ventilate.

She remembered last year, her last year of normal-kid school. They laughed at how she was small, but it meant she could climb up on porcelain sinks without trouble. Leaf carefully stood in the water basin and poked her head up over the windowpane.

Gary wasn't with two men; he was with at least _ten_. They all seemed to be relaxing, though, what with the worn-out couches and the older TVs connected to video game consoles. All but one of them looked sort of like the bald guy who had met Gary in the store, except he was probably the oldest one, the only one old like a parent.

But the two talking with Gary…One was in a fancy suit. The other had on a black V-neck shirt and nice jeans, and his hair was in a fancy layered style. That meant money. And he was young…high school, maybe?

Then Leaf saw on the stylish boy's short sleeves: a large, red 'R'.

"The dude's got balls of steel," the boy with the strange letter said. "We own this country, genius. _I_ own this city. Go to the police. See what happens."

The boy came to within a hairs breadth of Gary, towering over him by an entire head and a half.

"If you know what's good for you, fella," the boy continued, "You'll take what I'm paying, and you and your pretty girlfriend are gonna walk out with your cute heads still screwed on tight."

It was quiet, now. Extremely, uncomfortably quiet. The men had paused their video game and were as still as Leaf herself, waiting. Seeing just how stupid Gary Oak could be.

Leaf knew the answer: _incredibly_.

But he was also incredibly _clever_.

"Sounds about right," Gary said. "I'll put it on the tab for the next time I see you. Sound right?" And then he added the Gary smile, to sink it.

The man waited for a long second, while Leaf's heart climbed clear into her throat.

Finally the boy clapped a hand on Gary's back and laughed. "Sure, sure," he said. "Next time, guy. Tell you what, and for being such a good sport about it? Five star rating on Under Net."

"Oslo, you're a scholar and a gentleman," Gary said. "My girl is waiting for me. I'll see you guys around."

The boy—Oslo?—went still once more. "The girl. She doesn't know…"

"Not a clue," Gary said. "What am I, an idiot?"

Leaf hurried down from the sink. She adjusted her hat and her hair and then she hurried back around to the front of the store. Gary was already waiting. He put his hand on her back again, and they walked that way for the next block, with Bulbasaur behind them.

#

"To answer your first question, I'm not _really_ working for Team Rocket," Gary said. "It's sort of complicated, and trust me, you don't want to be involved."

Her first question would have been _can you please remove your hand from my back_ but Gary continued. "And no, I'm also not putting the Under Net on your Pokedex. I needed to do some gross hacking to get it on mine, and I'm not putting a kid in that situation."

"We're _both_ kids. You're barely two years older than me."

The hand finally dropped. "I'm hungry," Gary said. He marched across the street to a hot dog vendor and fished some coins out of his back pocket. "You hungry, Leaf?"

Leaf shook her head. "I already ate."

"Suit yourself."

"What's Team Rocket?"

"Keep your voice down," Gary said. He paid for his hot dog and dressed it with all the toppings, and then they stood in the middle of the road, letting the dwindling nighttime visitors pass around them. "Look. All I needed you for was to be my out, okay? If I'm in there alone, I end up fighting somebody. But if I've got a reason to leave, then _hey_ , I'm out with my money and it's all good. Well, _half_ my money. Oslo's a cheat."

"You're…Wait. Gary, why does this all sound kind of…against the law?"

"Because it most definitely is," he said. He took a bite of his dinner, then: "Hey, I've got a room not far from here. You got a place to stay tonight?"

"I'm fine," Leaf said.

"Cool beans. I'll be in town a while. This job they've got me on is going to be a pain." His snake-like eyes found hers and held them. "Thanks for tonight, Leaf. I mean it."

"You're welcome," she said.

He didn't leave immediately. He scanned her face, like he was waiting for her to say something, but she had no idea what, and so he took a step back and waved.

"Smell you later," he said, and then he was gone with the crowd. "Your hair looks nice long, by the way."

Gary Oak.

 _Ugh_.

#

The next morning.

There was a knock on her bedroom door. Bulbasaur was in the bed beside Leaf, and it didn't stir. The knock came again, and Leaf sat up slowly, rubbing the sleep from her eyes and pulling the hair that fell from the ponytail out of her face. "Who is it?" she asked.

She expected either Mindy or the ghost boy, but instead there was a young woman's voice. "It's almost noon," she said. "Ma'am worried that maybe you had gotten locked in the toadstool."

"Nah," Leaf grumbled. She threw the comforter off, and Bulbasaur kicked its legs as it woke. "I'm good. I'll be out in a second."

"That's…I…Okay, then!" Then, as Leaf listened, footsteps went down the hallway, stopped, came back, and _then_ left again.

Leaf was grateful her room was so close to the kitchen. She remembered how many turns and twists it took to find her room last night. If the bathroom had beenon another floor, Leaf would probably have considered that offense a straight-up deal breaker.

There was a note on the kitchen table, folded and left with a handful of coins on top. Leaf regarded it for a moment, then went to the fridge, but the voice was in the hallway again: "T-that's for you. Ma'am said it was important."

The woman in the hallway—false, _girl_ in the hallway—was maybe an inch shorter than Leaf, and the way her curly black hair was twisted into a bun made her look more mature than her quivering knees suggested. She wore a white apron, and the various stains seemed equal parts old and new. She had a round head. It reminded Leaf of a Voltorb, and immediately she felt guilty.

"Oh," the girl stammered. "I didn't introduce myself. Felicity, that's me. My name. I'm Felicity."

"Hi, Felicity. My name's—-"

"You're Leaf, from Pallet Town! I know exactly who you are. Ma'am had me vet you through Ranger Net the day before you arrived."

"Are you the maid?" Leaf asked.

"No! No, no. Ma'am is my grandma. I'm just here to help with the chores from time to time."

"Help with the chores…I mean, but this place is huge."

"Yes," Felicity said, suddenly defeated. "I do my best."

Felicity's lips pinched together, and she sighed.

"I forgot! That's why I came in the kitchen!" Felicity bopped herself in the skull. "That letter! Ma'am—"

"She wants me to read it, you said so," Leaf said. She sat at the table and opened it.

"Did you want lunch? I can fix you a meal in a heartbeat!"

Leaf didn't want to make the awkward girl work, but Leaf's stomach won the battle of wills, and so Leaf agreed. "Your grandma is nuts, by the way," Leaf said as she finished the note. "Did you know anything about this?"

"No," Felicity said. She began frying something over the stove. "Is it good news?"

"Mindy wants me to take her money and go stock up on healing items," Leaf summarized. "She gave me a _ton_ of cash. This is crazy."

"Ma'am does like to be generous—"

"It's not the generosity that gets me, though." Leaf pulled Bulbasaur up to sit with her. "Felicity, right? How long have you been helping out your grandmother?"

Felicity reached for a plate in the cabinet. "six months now. After my uncle started being all ghost-weird-y…was I supposed to mention that?"

"It's why I'm here," Leaf prodded gently. "I'm supposed to find him up in the toadstool?"

Felicity gave a confused look.

Leaf pointed a finger up above them.

"Oh! Of course! Right!" Felicity slid the food from the pan onto the plate, and she walked it over to Leaf. "I hope you like noodles. They're my favorite. Ma'am doesn't much care for them, but…"

"I'm so hungry, I could eat the toadstool," Leaf said. As she ate, Felicity washed the dishes she'd used, then set about putting away the dishes in the drain and cleaning down the stovetop. She was silent all the while. Bulbasaur watched her the way he would watch the Beedrills above them, back in Viridian Forest.

"Hey, question," Leaf asked, walking her empty plate to the sink. "Wanna come item-shopping with me?"

Felicity dropped the silverware she was carrying.

"What, does sunlight burn you or something?"

"No, I do have sunblock. _Oh_ , that was a joke! Right! Ma'am doesn't joke much."

Leaf helped Felicity pick some of the spilled cutlery. Up close, Felicity had a few pimples over her cheeks. How old was she?

"I don't want to get lost, is all," Leaf said. "Really, I could use a guide."

"I have too much work to do here," Felicity said.

Leaf wasn't about to go out alone. Not if it meant Gary Oak and ghost boys. She prodded: "Felicity, if we go right now, we'll be back before sundown. I'll have time to help you with your work, and then I'll go up to the toadstool warmed up for anything that comes at me."

Not that she had any idea what was supposed to attack her, but anyway.

"How's that sound?" Leaf asked.

She took a cue from Gary Oak and smiled as she said it.

Turns out, sealing with a smile does a lot of good.

#

Felicity _was_ older than Leaf.

"You know, I'm not even thinking about high school," Leaf admitted. The two of them rode the train to the far end of the shopping district, and Leaf watched the upscale suburbia of Santa Monica race by. "I mean, yeah, my mom wanted me to take the school-and-a-job route. But it wasn't for me."

"It wasn't for me, either," Felicity said. She had thrown on baggy jeans and an even baggier shirt, with a band on the front that Leaf didn't recognize. "But I didn't have anything else I wanted to do. I like reading…drawing, too. My dad said I could have been an artist, but by then I was already applying for high school and….well, thinking about college, maybe."

The worry on Leaf's face must have hit Bulbasaur's, too, because Felicity looked at the girl next to her and the Pokemon on her lap, and laughed. "I promise you, being fifteen isn't as bad as I make it look! It's not! It's just life."

"It's just life," Leaf repeated. "That sounds about right."

The train tracks curved, and soon the rows and rows of homes were replaced with rows and rows of stores. Leaf spotted a few department stores she recognized, but not many.

"I think you're really lucky, actually," Felicity said. "Knowing what you want to do, I mean."

Leaf decided to keep her comments to herself, and listen.

"I have no idea what I'll be, but you…you're a Pokemon Trainer. That's _so_ cool. I'm jealous."

The girls disembarked in the shopping district center. They left the station and Leaf called up their shopping list on her Pokedex. "So, I need about a zillion super potions…but they won't sell them to me because I only have one badge…Max Ethers…Wait. I can't legally buy these things. What was Mindy thinking?"

"Let me see." Felicity perused the list. "Oh! It's a good thing I came along, after all. You can't get these things from a PokeMart, not without having the right badges. But…what's the saying? It's not who you know, it's what you know?"

"I think you've got that backwards."

"No, I think that's the right way," Felicity said absently. "It's this way. Follow me."

Bulbasaur scrunched up its face. " _Saurrrr._ "

"Is something wrong?" Felicity asked.

"Nah," Leaf answered. "Bulbasaur has a thing with shady alleys, is all."

"Oh, it's not shady or anything like that. You'll see." Felicity nodded twice and started walking. Leaf followed.

"I know everything _looks_ fancy, but really, it's not," Felicity said as they passed the water fountains, the tall structures with ornate facades, and finally the green trolley car that connected the space. "The shopping center is modeled after early Kalosian architecture, and they're all into arches and fancy shapes. Or that's what ma'am told me."

Toward the end of the complex, Leaf saw a large, crimson tent. People shuffled in and out, clutching bags of goods. Leaf also noticed that the closer they got to the tent, the more the shoppers around them changed; instead of older people with straight postures and stern lips, there were college kids, and more than a few boys and girls Leaf's age. There were no Pokemon walking around, though, and that made Leaf antsy.

"What's the tent for?" Leaf asked.

"The shopping center never really authorized a…well, a swap meet. But there's nothing in the laws saying it _couldn't_ be here, either. And it brings in good money."

They were under the tent, now. For a solid mile down, there were rows and rows of tables and booths, laid out with different items for sale. Bulbasaur huddled close to Leaf's leg as people rushed past them.

"So, first up was a Max Ether, right?" Felicity asked. She turned Leaf around and pushed her to the left. "This waaaaay," Felicity sang.

"How long can you stay out?" Leaf asked.

"Don't worry about that. I'm never outside. This was _such_ a good idea!"

Leaf smiled.

"And…we're right here!" Felicity said. She stopped them in front of one table in particular. The spread was meager: super potions, a few great balls, and a lonely Good Rod caught Leaf's eye. Nothing she couldn't get herself after the Cascade Badge, though. Felicity held up a chubby hand to signal the seller, who was sitting in a folding chair and engrossed in a magazine. "Excuse me?"

The seller glowered. She was wrinkled like a road map. "What do you want?"

"Three Max Ethers, please."

Leaf's eyes went wide. If she wasn't broke now, _that_ would put her into indentured servitude.

"Hold up," the seller said. She turned around, reached into a cooler at her feet, and pulled out the three bottles. She placed them on the table. "That'll be 600P."

"Please and thank you!" Felicity said with a happy hum at the end. She handed over the coins, and the seller even put the items in a paper bag.

"Okay, then…What's next, Leaf?" Then: "Why's your jaw open like that? Bugs are gonna fly in."

"This. Cannot. Be. Legal. Those things are supposed to cost a fortune!"

"I don't know." Felicity put a finger to her lips. "I've never seen any police around here. I mean, there are security guys all over, though."

"Who?"

"Look, right over there. That guy with the black shirt? Security guys."

Leaf found who Felicity was talking about.

The red 'R' on the man's shirt sleeve said it all.

"Felicity, this is nice of you," Leaf said slowly, "But can we go? I don't feel comfortable about this."

Sincerely, _annoyingly_ sincerely, Felicity put a hand to Leaf's forehead. "Your face is getting all red! You're not sick, are you? That wouldn't be good for tonight, I can tell you that much."

"It's not…Those guys with the 'R'. I saw one of them last night. A lot of them."

"'R'?" Felicity spied the men a second time, and then it registered. "Oh! That just means they're with Team Rocket."

So they _were_ like the people from last night.

Leaf remembered how they cornered Gary Oak. Her palms went clammy.

"I think I've got enough stuff," Leaf said. She struggled to keep her voice even. She was older, now. She could keep it together if she needed to. Leaf could keep it _together_. "Can we go back?"

"We came all the way here," Felicity said. "Oh, there's a book shop out by the tram! Did you want to—"

"Yes, yes, let's do that." _Anything_ to get them out of the tent.

Felicity led them back the way they came. The warm light of outside was close now. Almost there, almost there—

So of _course_ Leaf has to shoulder-check one of the Rockets.

She hadn't seen where he was coming from. Was he already there? Did he literally come out of nowhere?

Leaf held her shoulder, because _Ow did that hurt_ , but the boy just rubbed the spot on his arm for a second. He was taller than her—wasn't everybody?—so he glowered down at her for a moment, and then he was on his way.

"What a jerk," Felicity said. And then, a voice with them: "I apologize for him. My friend can be a nuisance."

Felicity sounded an inquisitive hum. "He can't be that bad all the time, though. I'm sure he was in a hurry."

"I doubt it," the voice said. A boy. Older, though. College. Leaf tried to place it.

"Can I help you find anything?" He said. "My name's Oslo. I'm the supervisor for today's event."

 _Oslo._

 _Oh, come_ on.

Felicity tapped Leaf on the shoulder once, twice, and then _jabbed_ her to get her attention. "It's nice to meet you, Mister Oslo," Felicity said sweetly. "I'm sorry, we were on our way out."

"Only after a good bargain or two, I hope."

"Oh, of course." Felicity was turning red as a Pokeball. She _had_ to be, rather: Leaf hadn't seen her face yet, but the girl's body heat was like a radiator. "I don't come here enough. I really don't get out of the house much, and I've been trying to do something about that, but I mean, that's life, and everyone's got the same problems, you know?"

Now she was babbling.

Okay, Leaf. Let your new maybe-friend flounder, or stay the course and avoid the criminal..?

"That is life," Oslo said. "Maybe I'd like to get to know a few of those problems, though."

Leaf looked over her shoulder.

 _Oh god, Oslo was pulling a strand of Felicity's hair back into place_.

"We need to get going," Leaf said, _loud_.

"Oh, right!" Felicity was as stunned to come back into reality as Leaf hoped she would be. "Um…Mister Oslo? This is Leaf. We _were_ on our way out."

"Leaf," Oslo said. He gave Leaf the same look over that he had to have given Felicity, but he found nothing in it. "Such a charming name."

"Yeah, that's great. Felicity, come _on_." Leaf had no choice. She took the bag of Max Ethers from Felicity's hands, grabbed her by the wrist, and dragged the girl past Oslo. "Nice to meet you, Rocket guy. Take care, bye, now." Bulbasaur pushed himself out of Leaf's arms, and he got behind Felicity and nudged her legs.

"Will I see you again?" Oslo asked Felicity.

"Hopefully not," Leaf said, once they were far enough to be out of earshot.

They stopped when they came back to the fountain. Leaf had the apology all ready to go. Felicity might not have appreciated having her flirting cut short, but Oak's words echoed: _Friends need friends, especially when they don't think they need them at all._

"I'm sorry about that," Leaf said. "I just got the jeebies from that guy, and then he was a Team Rocket person, and I _really_ don't like them, but I don't want to go home yet if you don't. Is that okay?"

Felicity was still staring at the red tent.

"Felicity, I'm sorry. I mean it."

Still nothing.

Great. Their friendship—was that what this was?—was dead in the water within three hours…

Actually, no.

"He was the first boy since…" Felicity put a hand to her ear, where Oslo had tucked her hair. "He was dreamy, wasn't he?"

 _The Rocket slumlord guy?_ "I didn't get it," Leaf said.

"Yeah," Felicity said dreamily.

"So…bookstore, right?"

"Yeah," Felicity sighed, and Leaf wondered if Felicity heard a word out of her mouth.

If Leaf became like that when she was finally a teenager, she wanted to be put _down_.

#

The train ride back had a wistful quality to it. They hadn't found anything else worth a purchase, but Felicity had found that odd, because Leaf spent the better part of two hours in the used bookstore. Even Bulbasaur, who was always so patient, elected to wait outside with Felicity and wait.

"I don't know," Leaf answered. "I mean, I found good stuff. I just try to pack light, if I can."

"Right," Felicity said. "Pokemon Trainers have to take everything on their backs, right?"

Leaf shook her head. "We get a PC storage thing. It comes with your license."

"You need a license to become a Pokemon Trainer?"

Leaf nodded. "It's not that interesting, though."

"But that means you could have bought stuff…"

Leaf watched the view race past. The houses had changed back from ornate Kalosian architecture to the short, stubby Kanto style. Leaf felt herself breathe easier.

"I don't know," Leaf said. "I don't leave roots down. The less I keep from the past, the better."

"There's a story behind that," Felicity said.

"There is," Leaf answered. "Probably."

Bulbasaur murmured in his sleep. He was on Leaf's lap; she traced the triangle patterns on his forehead with a finger. He didn't stir.

"Tonight's the night," Leaf said. "Mindy's gonna give me all the guidelines, right?"

"I imagine so. But you've got your badge from Pewter City, and you and Bulbasaur had to be a rock-hard pair to earn that, right?"

"God, that was a painful pun."

"Pun?"

Leaf giggled. It woke up Bulbasaur, but he drifted back to sleep just as easily.


End file.
